ENDANGERED
SPECIES 
The above detail from the 9 Dec. 1963 Reno Evening Gazette dominates
the 12-foot-high wallpaper in the Kuenzli Street foyer of the Reno
Gazette-Journal. The plaques at lower left are square with the floor.
Part of the entry to the newsroom may be seen at lower right. For many
years, Dondero's
world renowned photo Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe
also graced the large RGJ reception/subscription area. With the paper
now being printed at the Nevada Appeal in Carson City, the building
will soon be sold and the historic wall thus becomes another endangered
historical artifact. (Anachronism credits: Barbwire photo taken
in July 2017; 35mm film [remember that?] processing by Gordon's Photo.)

JUST HOW DRUNK DO YOU THINK
I AM? Dondero used to carry full-color business cards. One version
had a Marilyn Monroe-style blonde standing under the Reno
arch in the middle of north Virginia Street  topless (the
model, not the arch).

The night was bloody cold. The lady in question wore a mink coat
to stay warm. Dondero scheduled it for well after midnight to minimize
auto traffic. He and "Marilyn" waited at a nearby bar.
Finally the moment arrived. They rushed into the street. The lady
dropped her mink below her shoulders, Dondero got the shot, she
recovered and they headed back to the saloon.

"Sure enough," he told me years later, "there were
two drunks standing nearby under a street light. As we walked back
into the bar, I heard the one who'd had his back to us say to the
other 'do you exshpect me to believe a story like that?'"

_______

Were
the two drunks really there, or did it just make for a better story?
Who cares.

_______

HISTORICAL
NOTE  Yes, there's a history behind the three words printed
on the flip side of the card. Back in Reno's glory days, gambling
hall pioneer Harold Smith, Sr., had billboards placed worldwide
reading "Harolds Club or Bust," a takeoff on the famed
19th Century "Pike's Peak or Bust" westward migration.
So the bust in question had twin meanings. Pardon the pun.

SNAKING
OUR WAY THROUGH A PHOTO SHOOT AT DON'S HOUSE
(Left to right) Betty
Barbano, Andrew Barbano and belly dancer Rachel Jill with her
very well behaved pet python, Sahadda, at a still/video session
at Don and Liz Dondero's house. The client was a plumbing/heating/air
conditioning trade association. I'll leave it to your imagination
to figure out how the belly dancer and snake fit in. Notice the
tools of Don's trade on the desk in the foreground. (1990)

HARD
WORK ON A HOT SUMMER DAY  Union ironworkers at the top of the
John Ascuaga's Nugget second tower construction, Sparks, Nevada, July
29, 1996.

THE
NEVADALABOR.COM SIGNATURE  Regular visitors to NevadaLabor.com
will recognize this as the ubitquitous link for returning to the home
page. Above is union ironworker Nick White at the top of the John Ascuaga's
Nugget second tower construction, Sparks, Nevada, July 29, 1996.

INVASION
OF THE TREE HUGGERS  Perhaps the best Reno
News & Review coverever. I know the identities of all three "models"
who made the supreme sacrifice so that Don could get this shot in the
snows of Mt. Rose. Their secret is safe with me. Sort of.

PHOTO BY DONDERO 
Sparks labor leader Richard "Skip" Daly and the Barbwire man
at the top of the Nugget second tower construction on July 29, 1996.

WHILE
WE WERE TALKING, DON WAS WORKING  While Skip Daly and I were talking
construction, Don wandered off and got some great shots, including this
action scene of a high crane bringing a load of concrete down like a
mother bird feeding her young. John Ascuaga's Nugget second tower construction,
Sparks, Nevada, July 29, 1996.